"The Pardoner's Tale" by Geoffrey Chaucer is a prime example poem containing exemplums. An exemplum is a short anecdote or story that illustrates a particular moral point. Developed in the late Middle Ages, this literary form was often used in sermons and other didactic literature. One famous example is Chaucer's "The Pardoner's Tale," which focuses on the subject of greed. Many characters in moral stories are allegorical-- that is, they stand for abstract ideas, such as virtue and beauty. An allegorical character in the story is one that they call 'Death'. The people fear him because he is a killer. To best illustrate a moral point, characters in an exemplum are usually good or evil. The Gambler is an example character in the exemplum and he doesn't seem to show any signs of being good or evil, so it is hard to tell whether he is good or evil. Greed is a subject in this moral story because the character in another exemplum is really happy that he gets all the treasure to himself. Moral stories usually have straightforward plots, where events happen in quick succession. The plot in "The Pardoner's Tale" is straightforward because it is about a guy who is pretty much using people for their money and being very greedy.
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June 2016
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